The Board of Governors Chairmans report 2014-2015

Outline of the report of the Board of Governors Chairman for 2014–2015

Report sections:

1. Administrative and organizational arrangements;

2. Financial matters;

3. Sports events of the Club;

4. Maintenance of golf course, clubhouse and infrastructure;

5. Individual work with golf club members;

6. Caddy management. All colleagues are requested to make their comments and proposals on work of the Board of Governors.

1. Organizational and administrative arrangements

Together with the MCC management the Board of Governors (BOG) starting from autumn 2014 has developed and agreed a common opinion on issues of the Golf Club management The most burning issues concerning financing, tournaments arrangement, maintenance of golf course, club house and golf restaurant operation were permanently discussed at the Board of Governors meetings. The MCC management has taken a constructive and compromise stance when considering all matters of the Golf Club activity. I’d like to particularly mention personal contribution of the MCC Director Artemy Evropin and the Golf Director Konstantin Gribkov. Responsible persons from the MCC such as the Director himself, the first Deputy Director Arkady Brish and the Deputy Director Pavel Eliseev in charge of golf restaurant, Head of Greenkeeping Oleg Zazulin, Chef Igor Ivanov were invited at each BOG meeting where organizational and administrational matters were considered. Golf Director Konstantin Gribkov was directly involved in shaping the agenda and the work of the BOG. Such practice has allowed to promptly respond to the Golf Club events and eliminate existing shortcomings. Insufficient control over fulfillment of the decisions made can be considered as the main disadvantage in the Golf Club management. Specific examples will be given when considering the basic activity of the Board of Governors.

2. Financial matters

During reporting period thanks to joint work of the BOG members and the MCC management the main condition of the Golf Club activity was ensured – stable and generally sufficient financing. This year annual membership fee remained unchanged at the last year’s level which allowed even to increase the number of active Golf Club members and to achieve appropriate budgeting. Due to series of meetings held together with the MCC management the total budget of the Golf Club sports events was revised which allowed to actually increase it three times. As a result under high inflation and price increase conditions in the country the Golf Club activity has not come to a standstill, the club has held all tournaments as per the schedule and new tournaments were held alongside with traditional ones. It should be pointed out that we already work on remaining the annual membership fee next year at the level of this year but taking into account inflation in the amount not exceeding 5–7%.

3. Sports events of the Golf Club

The Golf Club sports life includes the following events:

– Events and tournaments held in summer season;

– Events and tournament held in autumn, winter and early spring.

I’d rather not dwell on each tournament held in summer. I’ll point out what was done this year:

– Under conditions of increase in number of active Golf Club members a new form of 2 shotguns per one day was tried and tested which actually allows to increase the number of players by 40% per one day;

– Due to using temporary greens summer playing season was extended: actually 2 weeks were added in spring and 2 weeks – in autumn;

– A system of holding matches between clubs was partly renewed and mainly improved. This year such tournaments were held with Pestovo and Agalarov clubs. Player selection system for participation in these tournaments has been improved by using the Golf Club Order of Merit.

– due to eventfulness of the club life and improving golf tournaments the Golf Club members skill has been considerably improved thanks to which their personal handicaps got substantially lower. This year handicaps of about 25% of Golf Club members got lower, many members were transferred to a single category. Undoubtedly the team of golf specialists headed by K. Gribkov and golf captains A. Ablekov and F. Zamudio played the most significant part in this matter. It should be also noted in my opinion a successful choice of golf professional of the Club. The large majority of golf club members pointed out superb and efficient work of Neel Sweeny. We are waiting for new results from him next year. The Committee on observance of golf rules and handicaps worked within the Board of Governors. N. Zarudnaya and Kim Chang Hway were members of this Committee. I think that this Committee has coped with their task. There were no specific complaints on this matter. Today we can assert that handicap calculation system at the Golf Club has been improved and mainly works stably. However we should admit unambiguously that if tournaments of summer playing season were organized well enough in whole, club life in winter season comes to a standstill. Members of the Board of Governors and me as the Chairman admit that this is our fault. Naturally sports activity of golf club members in winter is lower but it does not mean that we have exhausted all the possibilities. We should think about it now and find new forms and ways of work. I’d like to submit this issue for extensive discussion.

4. Maintenance of golf course, clubhouse and infrastructure

Work on maintenance of the golf course, club house and infrastructure It should be noted that due to increase in number of golfers at the Club the load on greenkeeping team under the guidance of Oleg Zazulin and on the golf course in whole has been drastically increased. Due to that the condition of the golf course was under permanent supervision of the BOG members. We should admit that this year the golf course mainly satisfied the modern requirements. The condition of fairways, greens, pathways and water hazards did not draw strong criticism from the golf club members. However bunkers and availability of sand in them were seriously criticized. On some holes the upper sand layer turned into dust and the layer underneath became caked which complicated playing and this shortcoming was eliminated only in August. Evidently the necessity has arisen to strengthen water hazards banks with gabions on Holes № 13, 15, 17, 18. Everybody was pleased with shed reconstruction on the Driving Range, condition and cleaning of practice balls. The Golf Club members pointed out that the work on replacing old and diseased trees and planting new trees was well done and most of trees took roots. This year clubhouse has not undergone substantial changes, however it is necessary to emphasize that the women’s locker room area has been drastically increased. The number of shower cubicles was increased twice. The terrace was equipped with new wicker furniture of high quality, which drastically improved its interior. The work of the MCC Internet Site was more stable this year and was controlled by the BOG member Svetlana Van Mourik. Site worked practically without outages and failures which allowed the Golf Club members using it without problems. I request to submit the issue of improving the MCC Internet Site for extensive discussion at the BOG meeting. The BOG members were seriously concerned about the work of golf restaurant and halfway house. Two BOG meetings were devoted to this issue, but the efficiency of these meetings is not rather high. Golf restaurant is a sore point of the Golf Club. Next year the highest priority should be given to this issue. I think that we should assign one or two representatives from the BOG who will supervise the golf restaurant condition an order weekly and will have not consultative vote, but together with the MCC management deciding vote to make the right decisions. It applies also to assortment, prices and quality of service. The BOG members were not satisfied with the condition of men’s shower cabins in the men’s locker room: hot and cold water supply cannot be adjusted in 3 shower cabins, door locks are broken. The condition of towels is unsatisfactory and they definitely have to be replaced by white towels of bigger size. The quality of towel washing requires improvement in order to avoid the odour they have now.

5. Individual work with golf club members

Individual work of the Board of Governors with golf club members was done in the following main areas:

– work with national diasporas;

– work of disciplinary committee;

– work with golfers of different age and playing level. The main goal of this work is to ensure maximum comfort level for golf club members. Representatives of all main Diasporas worked in the Board of Governors due to which interests of multinational team were taken into consideration. Our club is unique, it is international and in this I see the guarantee of its successful work for many years. This year the Korean Day was held at the week-end for the first time at the request of the Korean Diaspora. It was well organized by our colleagues: there were two shotguns whereas the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry specially allocated prizes and gifts for participants of the morning tournament and the Korean golfers themselves were pleased to hold the tournament in afternoon. Disciplinary Committee within the Board of Governors headed by Andrey Biryukov and its members Kim Chang Hway and Mia Sattar worked rather well. I do not remember any substantial disciplinary infractions this year. It can be explained both by the work of Disciplinary Committee and better work of marshals. I’d like to thank them for this, but I’d like to remind that marshals used their rights not in full this year. It particularly refers to stableford tournaments . . . Especially it concerns sablefort format tournament, when group of players delaying the game more than one hole need to apply sanctions until the pass the hole. This year white Tees were actively used taking into consideration characteristics of golfers of different age and level of training. It refers to men’s part of the golf club with corresponding handicaps which in its turn had a significant impact on change of golfer handicaps for the better. To account for the characteristics of players of different agas and the level of training this year were using Wight tee, it concerns men with appropriate handicap, this rule improve handicap plenty of players свою очередь существенно повлияло на изменение гандикапов .

6. Caddy management

The Board of Governors paid particular attention to issues of caddy training and work in the Club. Under the guidance of Valery Chalov certain traditions as for caddies were established at the Club which in whole meet vital demands of golfers. However I’d like to pay attention to the fact that employee turnover is very high. We have actual rotation every year as children grow up. In these conditions it is very important to ensure intergenerational continuity so that those working not for the first year passed on their experience to younger generation. Contest for the best caddy held for the 5th time at the Club also plays an important part in this issue. I ask members to take an active part in the discussion . Prepare your questions for the anual meeting , or you can ask them to me personally by phone 8 ( 985) 769 18 67 Yours sincerely, Chairman of the Board of Governors

A. Kozlov

03.09.2015 г.